lost my enthusiasm - help me...

oh dear well you lot are probably gonna crucify me - i am tempted to go back to disposables...

i haven't even had that many problems to be honest - just the usual bit of wicking but i seem to have sorted them now. i think the thing that's getting me down is the weird smell of the nappies as they are drying -they are not bad and i have tried stripping them etc and i honestly don't use a lot of detergent (no bubbles when i washed them a second time with just water) and so i just don't wasnt the smell in my house it just annoys me!
and secondly -whenever he does wear a disposable he is so much slimmer looking and i think it just makes him look better! (not that he is fat or anything just that he has a big bum when he has his cloth ones on lol) dh and MIL always seem to resort to putting a disposable on him when they have him (dh only if i haven't stuffed all the nappies before hand)
they sound very lame arguments for switching back lol. i haven't got any money to be buying any new ones at all and that was half the fun for me in the beginning! come on tell me i'm being silly and remind me why i'm using them.......

I'll try and convert you back

Have you tried putting a few drops of essential oil in the nappy bucket and wash, then while they are drying you will also get some of that smell - lavender, tea tree seem to be the most common, but the other Annette mentioned neroli (But I haven't tried it yet) and I think anything that you can use on skin via a carrier oil would be OK on nappies - I wonder about using Olbas oil sometimes just to change the smell!

Also there was a post about using Bold 2in1 so you would have some of that smell as apparently it doesn't effect the nappy absorbancy.

OK now the reasons for using cloth - have you looked at the diaper drama thediaperhyena.com/diaper_drama.htm if you haven't read it before it makes good reading.

What nappies have you got as there could be a way of making them slimmer (ie if they are pockets there could be slimmer stuffings). Also I do believe that a cloth nappy is the same size as a wet disposable once it has absorbed all the wee and needs changing, so they are only slimmer for a little while.

Cloth feels lovely on the skin to your lo v. harsh scratchy paper, you are keeping his testicles cooler therefore he is not going to have fertlity issues later on in life, you are not throwing away his used nappies to be around in later years - in his very old age, his nappies will still be there in landfill, hopefully not along with his children's, grandchildren, great grandkids etc.

OK there are loads more reasons, but I will let the others write them down as I need to go to the loo!

Hi,

Or..., you could try and sell some of you nappies in order to get some funds for some new funky ones like green kids, which are super slim and pocket bots.

Disposable: think about a dirty, digusting smelling plastic bag of nappies to throw away EVERY day.


Gisele

Ooooh and the smell of wet disposables - eurk! I always used to think she'd poo'd when she was just wet!

Never mind the nasty crystals she used to get on her skin...

There are plenty of slim nappies out there, what are you using at the moment?

[clothmama]

......and giving Hu*g%i£s / P&*(&*(s or the big supermarkets all that money each week for something that goes in the bin! Knowing your doing your bit for the world etc etc etc!!!

Seriously though it sounds like you need to sort out the smell issue. I started getting smelly nappies when Louis was about 9 months and teething badly. I was NOT going to put up with it - I love my nappies too much !!! I asked around and read everything I could find and tried a few things and this is the combo I find works and others have reported back to me the same.

* Do a quick rinse on COLD water (the heat can set smells into the fibres of the nappy), the one I use is just the end rinse of a wool cycle and really only takes 5 minutes.
* Then add 1/2 tablet or 1/4 of usual amount of powder (have heard that liquid may cause extra build up so never use it on my nappies as that too could cause smell retention).
* In the fabric conditioner drawer add a slosh of white vinegar (vinegar actually neutralises the urine so I found the result immediate when I started using this). I also add 4 drops of tea tree oil (again not just for the smell, this is antibacterial to hospital grade and pretty amazing stuff), and 6 drops of lavender (coz it smells nice but also has antibacterial properties in its own right).
* Wash on 40-60 depending what you want to do (I tend to wash on 50 as a compromise!!)

The only times I've ever noticed a whiff (and I'm one of those people that sniffs everything, even food before I eat it!!) is when I've run out of the vinegar, and even then it takes a few washes without before I notice anything!!

Don't give up - cloth nappies are cool!!!!

right so i'll try the vinegar then i think. i am determined not to give up otherwise i'd have spent more money than if i'd stuck with disposables in the first place lol. i have some lavender and tee tree oils and had no idea what to actually do with them so they are sat in a drawer.

and i may sell one or two just to get myself a new one (i have only bought 2 new ones though ever - the rest are pre-loved )

mainly i have swaddlebees and fuzzis in the day time. i have 2 happy heinys but still can't get them quite right and also a drybees (wetbees as i should rename them). For night time i have bamboozles which i like, an ellas house bumhugger -my fave, adn some huggles -huge lol)
oh i stuff the swaddlebees with a hemp insert with a mf cloth over the top -or vice versa [mf insert with hemp booster]
the fuzzis i stuff with a prefold and a mf insert that it comes with.
any other ideas? any all in one combos that would work the same??

edited to add: i always run a rinse and spin cycle before i add any powder and set the machine to wash-is that ok do you reckon? i figured it would rinse out the wee and make way for clean water to wash them in...

Thinking about stuffing things like the fuzzis, IMO a prefold and a mf booster would make it a lot larger than in needs to be. I like to add bamboo to my pockets as its slim and very absorbant (after a few washes 10 is optimum) a simple way to try a bamboo booster would be to order a 40 x 40 cm square from babeco.co.uk (I have found the white retain their shape more than the unbleached - but for boosting it doesn't matter that much), then triple fold the square (like a prefold) then fold in half and as its a boy normally I put it over the top half of the mf so there is 6 layers of bamboo with an inner of the mf insert. This way you get the absorbancy where you need it, and also a slimmer bum as only the mf and pocket nappy is over the bum.

The rinse and spin cycle before the powder should do the trick as well - there have also been some posts (mainly on BC I think) about using bio powder in hard water areas, as its only a tiny amount in the wash and extra rinse at the end, you might want to try it once or twice to see if your lo's skin is OK, but I now alternate between bio and non bio depending on which is closer to hand. Oh and I live in hard water and use a tablespoon of powder for a whole nappy wash.

I also used white vinegar religiously in every wash (but I only measured out a capful). However I think it was devonhilly, who said its not recommended on pockets, something to do with wearing down the elastic too quickly. So now if I have lots of pockets in the wash I don't use it, but if its one or 2 pockets and lots of others then I use it. Its hard to know what to do over the long term, but short term with smells I would use it to solve the issue.

[clothmama]

Your rinse you are doing sounds fine - just check that it is COLD, that bit is really important as heat can set smells!

Re HH's - I dont' really love mine either (except for the patterns!!) I rarely put them under clothes (find them quite bulky tbh), just with a tshirt - and as you say they are hard to get right. The best I've found is a prefold as I can fold it wide enough to go right to the edge of the nappy (that is the trick with them and also to make sure the legs are pulled up firm before fastening the waist). Also not heard great things about wetbees so haven't even tried one! If I were you I'd sell the hh's and the wetbees and get more fuzzis if you are happy with them or some pocket bots (make sure they are poly (the plains are and some prints as well) cotton pul does wick more (one of the problems with hh's!)

The hemp / mf combo is a great one, but you must have the mf closest to the baby or it may leak as hemp is slow to absorb. Hemp in your fuzzis with the mf would make them really really slim, thats what I use and its honestly hardly thicker than a dispo! There are some inserts that already have the mf and hemp - I know Blueberrys do but there may be others as well.

Please come back and ask as many questions as you want or if you need more encouragement!!

Hugs to you and the boys!

every so often i think that i just cant be bothered to fold them and put them away...and then i remember having to take out the bin every day, and the awful stench, and the poo up the back, and then i am quite grateful for my pretty nappies!!!

buy yourself 1 new one, and bottle the excitement of the fluffy post!!